Just when we were slowly getting a little interest to see what Boston could do without Rondo, they suffer another serious blow. Clearly, I'm not equating Sullinger's value to Rondo's but we can all agree that he had been a bright spot and seemed to be getting better all season long. He averaged 6.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and shot .49% from the floor plus 75% from the free throw line in 19.8 minutes per game mostly off the bench although he started the last few games.
Part of the reason he's been so effective is that Sullinger has an old school game: he likes to play inside so he's tough and he can rebound very well despite not being particularly athletic. Without him, the Celts lack any other real inside threat. Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass prefer to shoot mid-range jumpers while Chris Wilcox is a bench guy that basically can just dunk. Don't get me started on rookie center Fab Melo since he hasn't played a minute in the NBA yet.
The good news for the C's is that Sullinger should be healthy and recovered by the start of training camp in the fall. Who knows what the rest of the squad will look like at that point? The cruel part is that Sullinger dropped to Boston in last summer's NBA Draft (21st overall) since NBA doctors thought he had serious back issues. Obviously, the Red Sox medical staff weren't in charge of checking out the rookies since sadly those guys got the diagnosis right. All you can hope is that Sullinger has a solid career and this doesn't hold him back (no pun intended) from turning into the player we know he could be.
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